


the details that make up you (let me be your prop)

by geumyoungs



Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Amazing, M/M, actually woojin is very responsible, and neither is jihoon, and they're both passionate about what they do, anyways someone teach me how to tag, srry this is lightweight garbage, surprisingly woojin isnt an idiot for once
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-31 15:36:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13978185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/geumyoungs/pseuds/geumyoungs
Summary: Prompt:theatre students 2park in which jihoon is an actor and woojin is the props manager and they somehow manage to fall in love during the rehearsing of their production despite things seeming to go wrong every step of the way.Prop:1. a portable object other than furniture or costumes used on the set of a play or movie.2. a person or thing that is a major source of support or assistance





	the details that make up you (let me be your prop)

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [TMYOUTHFW](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/TMYOUTHFW) collection. 



 

 

 

Woojin grabs at his wrist and squeezes hard to try and relieve the cramp he’s getting from taking down notes so furiously. It’s the first table reading for the cast of this season’s first production at his university and as prop manager, Woojin knows he needs to be on top of his game. It’s a big show with over 30 actors and Woojin has already read the script well over ten times trying to locate any props he’d need to find or make by hand. He has a binder full of notes on each leading actor, like what kind of colours or patterns would suit them best or what kind of materials would match with their character. Woojin has already spent  _ a lot _ of (read: too much) time talking to his director about the characterization and motivations of each character just so he can get everything perfect for the show. Hell, his script is so full of sticky notes it looks like there’s a small rainbow pouring from it. Woojin could probably regurgitate the entire play by memory alone. The voice of the next actor, however, makes Woojin forget about his aching wrist. 

 

“Hello everyone! I’m Jihoon and I’ll be playing the role of Jaejoon, the best friend of Dohyun. I look forward to working with all of you!” 

 

The voice is soft and…  _ nice _ , Woojin thinks. The actor has honey blonde hair and a red tinge to his cheeks. Woojin looks into his binder and finds the section marked  _ Jaejoon,  _ he scribbles “cute” in the margin.

 

“And I’ll be playing Dohyun!” The boy sitting beside Jihoon stands to address the group, “My name is Minjae, it’s nice to meet you all.” 

 

He’s handsome, Woojin notes. His own eyes being enough to draw that conclusion, but the girls fawning over him in the corner really brings it home. He can hear lots of actors whispering about how good looking Minjae is. Hell! Even his director is saying how fitting Minjae is to play the lead, a tough bad boy who finds his heart along the course of the play. There are lots of mumbles too, about how Jihoon is perfect to play Dohyun, the cute best friend who is very much just comedic relief in Woojin’s opinion. Looking over to Jihoon, who is receiving a boatload of compliments over how cute he is from his castmates, Woojin notices that the other looks a little… dejected? It’s only there for a brief second before the other schools his expression, but Woojin is sure he saw it. 

 

_ “He always plays really cute characters, everyone knew as soon as he walked in that he’d be playing Dohyun.” _

 

_ “Of course, those kinds of characters suit him so well, who would even think to put him anywhere else?” _

 

From behind him, Woojin catches a piece of the conversation of the girls seated behind him and Jihoon’s earlier dejection seems to click for him now.  _ So he’s sad about being typecast, huh?  _ Woojin thinks. He feels a little empathy for the other, it must be frustrating to always play the same kind of character  _ every _ show. Woojin spares another glance at Jihoon and wonders how he’s never noticed someone so attractive before. He turns to the page marked  _ Jaejoon _ in his binder and proceeds to add  _ “handsome” _ underneath the first scribble in the margin. 

 

..

 

They’re one month into rehearsals and two months away from the show going up. Excitement fills Woojin as he sits in his office painting props. He holds his breath as he does the detail work, not wanting to mess anything up and be forced to start over. He sighs dreamily once he’s done, looking around the room and seeing all the props and set pieces he’s already acquired. The set designer was new this year and in Woojin’s humble opinion, sucked. The colours were all wrong, the set had no balance; it was a mess to say the least. For the sake of the show, the director asked Woojin to be the  _ “mentor” _ of the set designer and so now Woojin is stuck with double the amount of work he already had but he can’t find it in himself to complain. He loves this. Woojin thinks that finding set pieces and placing them on the stage, finding props that match the character’s personality, working alongside costume designers and set designers and even the actors is kind of beautiful in a really fucking cheesy way because the end result is just one final piece. It’s the details that matter to Woojin, he’s always been observant. For him, watching productions is every bit about the props and set as it is the actors and lighting. He just gets very prideful when he sees the completed product, all of the little things he’s added, the way that his work may not be as grandiose as that of the actors, but his work is essential. Like the seams that keep the show together. Woojin just really loves the little things.

 

A panicked knock on his office door pulls Woojin from his work. 

 

“Woojin! Emergency meeting in the theatre!” One of the actors yells.

 

Woojin puts down his paintbrush and looks at the first year student, “What’s wrong, Somin-ah?” 

 

“Minjae is hurt, I don’t think he’ll be able to do the show.” She responds immediately, looking very worried. 

 

“Oh shit.” Woojin stands from his desk and begins to make his way with Somin to the theatre. Stopping before he shuts the door, he turns to Somin and pats her head softly, “Somin-ah, you don’t have to worry, we’ll figure something out.” 

 

..

 

It’s worse than Woojin would have imagined it. When he gets to the theatre, he sees Minjae on crutches, one leg in a full cast up to his knee. 

 

“What happened?” Their stage manager, Jihyun asks. 

 

“I was at soccer practice and someone tried to steal the ball. I’ll spare you the gross details, but it’s broken.” Minjae answers, making a face at the memory of his leg breaking under his weight. 

 

“So what now?” Somin pipes up from beside Woojin. 

 

“It won’t be healed in time for the show, that’s for sure. I can’t walk on it at all, I think it would be better to just find someone to replace me asap so that we don’t lose any more time.” Minjae says looking quite down. “I’m really sorry I let you down everyone, I should have been more careful.” 

 

Their director finally stands up to speak, “Minjae, it was an accident, it’s alright.” Everyone lets out a sigh of relief at that, all of them expecting the director to go into a fit of rage at the loss of  his leading actor, “And you’re right, we do need to find someone to replace you right away.” 

 

Woojin looks around the room and notices the general panic that’s starting to float around. Having to find a leading actor who can catch up on a month’s worth of missed rehearsal time was probably damn near impossible. But then an idea hits him.

 

Raising his hand slowly, Woojin calls out to the director. “Director Kim, I think I know of someone who could play Dohyun.”

 

The group of actors seem to perk up at that and Director Kim motions for him to go on. 

 

“Park Jihoon.” Woojin answers. 

 

All eyes turn to Jihoon and then back to Woojin. 

 

“But he’s already playing Jaejoon!” Somin reminds him and everyone nods. 

 

Woojin turns to the direction of Jihoon and the two hold a brief moment of eye contact before Woojin turns to address everyone else, “Yes, but where else are we going to find someone talented enough to play Dohyun on such short notice? What? Are we going to waste an entire week holding auditions? Jaejoon is an easy role to fill, anyways. I’ve seen him during the rehearsals, he knows a lot of the blocking and most of the lines, it wouldn’t be that hard to have him catch up to the rest of us. He’s a very talented actor and I trust that he’d be able to play the role perfectly.” 

 

Sparing another glance at Jihoon, Woojin sees a blush creep up on his cheeks and it makes him smile. 

 

“Jihoon? Is that true? What Woojin said about the lines and blocking?” Director Kim asks. 

 

“Yes, I mean, my character spends almost the entire play beside Dohyun so I kinda picked up on his lines and cues too.” Jihoon responds hopefully. 

 

“Then it’s decided! Jihoon will now be playing Dohyun. We’ll hold an audition later this week to find someone to replace him as Jaejoon. For now though, Minjae, I would like you to work with Jihoon to make sure he’s completely caught up with the rest of us by the end of this week.”

 

“You got it, Sir!” Minjae makes to salute the Director, but wobbles instead and the room laughs at him when he regains his composure. 

 

Woojin thinks that the room feels a lot happier than it did just two minutes ago. 

 

..

 

On his way back to his office, Woojin hears a voice call out to him. 

 

“Woojin! Wait up!” 

 

It’s Jihoon. 

 

While Woojin has made it a habit to watch at least one of the runs for their show each rehearsal to watch for how useful his props are to the characters or if anything needs to be adjusted as far as set design or props go, he’s never really been up close to a lot of the actors. Especially the main cast, who were almost always on stage without pause. So when Jihoon jogs up to him in the empty hallway of the theatre department, it gets Woojin a little starstruck. He can’t help it, really, Jihoon is very,  _ very  _ handsome and even more so up close. 

 

“Hey, Jihoon.” Woojin hopes he sounds chill and nonchalant, like he isn’t screaming over the cute boy internally.

 

“Hey.” Jihoon laughs a little breathless from the jog, “I just wanted to thank you for recommending me to the cast and director. I really wanted to step up, but I was too shy to actually say I wanted the role.”

 

“Oh, yeah, no problem, Jihoon. You really are quite talented, it was honestly a no brainer.” Woojin answers honestly and the way that same blush from earlier retraces its steps to Jihoon’s cheeks swells Woojin’s heart. 

 

“Thanks. I don’t really get that often.” Jihoon looks down to his shoes for a second and Woojin has to hold back his giggle because the Jihoon on stage and the Jihoon off stage are worlds apart. Seeming to remember something, Jihoon snaps his gaze back at Woojin, “Also, I wanted to say thank you for working so hard for us. You must be crazy busy doing props  _ and  _ set design. I think it’s really cool that you can balance everything like that.” 

 

“It’s nothing really!” Woojin starts bashfully, “I love my job so it really isn’t work. It’s kind of relaxing, honestly. You should try painting props and building things, it’s pretty fun.” 

 

“Maybe I should try it out then.” Jihoon smiles at the other. 

 

Woojin looks down at Jihoon’s hands and see how they’re fidgeting. Grabbing one of Jihoon’s hands, he prompts the other to look at him, “Hey, Jihoon, you don’t have to be nervous, okay? I know you’re going to kill it as Dohyun. And if the nerves get to you, you can always pop by my office and paint some props with me alright?” Woojin smiles softly at Jihoon, trying to get him to relax a bit more. 

 

“Y-yeah, totally!” Jihoon says red faced and staring at where Woojin is holding his hand. 

 

“Sorry!” Woojin rips his hand away and blushes a little himself. “I’m gonna head back to my office now, I still have lots to do.” 

 

“Yeah, no, you go ahead. I should get back to the theatre. I’ll see you around then?” Jihoon asks sounding a tad hopeful, though Woojin convinces himself it must just be the giddiness setting in that he’s playing the lead now. 

 

“Of course! I’ll be rooting for you in the house!” Woojin raises a fist in a cheering motion and takes a couple steps backwards to make his exit. 

 

“Bye, Woojin! And thank you again.” Jihoon also starts to walk backwards, neither wanting to be the first to turn away completely. “Have fun with your props too! I’m also rooting for you!” Jihoon laughs, embarrassed. 

 

Someone yelling for Jihoon breaks the moment and they both turn away with a quick bye, Jihoon running back in the direction of the theatre and Woojin walking back to his office. 

 

Once he’s in his office, Woojin closes the door behind him and smacks his face with his hand. “Park Woojin, are you fucking kidding me? You held his hand?” Woojin knew that it technically wasn’t his fault so much as it was his sister, Yerim’s fault. After years and years of being the valiant, noble older brother and comforting his sister time and time again, Woojin had just developed a habit of being touchy when he wanted to comfort people. He figures it isn’t that bad, but he isn’t sure how Jihoon would take it and, _god_ _,_ Woojin really just wanted to crawl into a hole right now. 

 

..

 

They’re halfway to opening night when Woojin is basically done his job as props manager. He’s got just about everything he needs for the show and the few minor props or set pieces he does need to build are things he’ll have to do on his own time when he can get access to the woodworking station behind the backstage wall. He can’t be making a fuss when the actors are trying to rehearse. So for now, Woojin appeases himself by watching the rehearsals. He sits next to Director Kim as always, having become his personal note taker. If Woojin thought his hand cramps were bad when he was talking notes for props, actor notes were about a billion times worse. Having to keep track of over thirty people and keep up the pace of his writing with Director Kim dictating the things he wanted Woojin to jot down was insane. 

 

Sometimes, Woojin gets a little distracted too. Jihoon has been coming to rehearsals without his usual light makeup (probably to get more into character as a tough guy) and Woojin has  _ definitely  _ noticed the difference. While the Jihoon who wore makeup was very cute and soft looking, this makeupless Jihoon was a lot more rugged and handsome. He’s still very cute to Woojin though, his natural lip colour is more pink than it is red and the glossy lipbalm he wears over it is inviting to say the least. 

 

“Woojin? Did you get that down?” Director Kim asks Woojin and the younger gulps. 

 

“Sorry, what did you say? I was thinking about the backdrop I’ll need to build later.” Bullshit. Woojin was thinking about how kissable Jihoon looked on stage, but he can’t exactly say that to their director now, can he?

 

“I said I’d like for Jihoon to come further downstage during his monologue. Page seventy three.” Director Kim reminds him and Woojin hums as he writes it down. 

 

From his side, Woojin hears Director Kim’s phone vibrate and he sees the other read a text. 

 

Standing quickly, Director Kim stops the actors, “Everyone, I need to make an urgent phone call, so you’ll have to excuse me. While I’m out, Woojin can you please go through the scene changes with the choreography of the set strike? Everyone please listen to Woojin while I’m gone.” And with that Director Kim is rushing out of the theatre. 

 

Everyone looks to Woojin and the other coughs before speaking, “Okay, since we’re already set for Act II Scene I, let’s go to the transition from scene one to scene two alright? Places everyone. Don’t move until I cue you.”

 

Woojin watches everyone move into their positions. He’d taken on the job of choreographing the strike of the set and the bringing on of new set pieces because with this many people on stage trying to make entrances and exits, as well as all the stagehands trying to bring on and take off set pieces, it can get extremely messy and worst case scenario someone could get hurt. 

 

Seeing everyone in their places, Woojin makes to grab his binder so he can check the blocking, “Alright!” He’s just about to cue everyone to start moving when he sees a couch being brought on from downstage right, right where Jihoon is standing. 

 

“Hey! Stop I didn’t cue you!” Woojin shouts, standing up from his seat and beginning to walk over to the two boys carrying the couch on  _ above _ their heads. 

 

The boys don’t stop immediately and Jihoon turns around to see them, but gets knocked over and onto the ground. The boy who bumped into Jihoon, trips on the actor and he and the couch are both tumbling down about to fall on the leading actor. To make it worse, the boy on the other side doesn’t release his side of the couch, making the fall much more forceful. It looks like a fucking guillotine that’s about to rain down on Jihoon. Woojin breaks into a sprint, dropping his binder to the ground.

 

He manages to make it to Jihoon (and the other boy) just before the couch can actually land on him and he does some kind of crazy weird awkward punch/tackle hybrid that sends the couch barrelling away from the two boys and onto the ground just beside them. His arm and shoulder hurt like hell, but Jihoon’s alright so Woojin doesn’t really care. 

 

The couch lands with a loud  _ bam _ and the entire theatre is silent. Woojin turns to look at the boy on the floor beside Jihoon with murder in his eyes. He grabs the kid by the collar and hoists him up so they’re face to face. 

 

“Are you fucking crazy? Why in the hell would you move when I didn’t cue you?! And why would you be carrying a couch above your heads? How old are you guys that you don’t even have this much common sense?”

 

“Sorry! We thought you said alright so we started to come on! And we thought carrying it higher would be better so people could pass by us!” The boy is shaking probably from the adrenaline of almost getting crushed and from the fear of Woojin’s threatening gaze. 

 

“Woojin, calm down.” Jihoon stands from the ground and places his hand on the wrist of the hand that’s holding the other boy’s collar. “This is why we rehearse, so it doesn’t happen in the show. It’s okay.” 

 

Woojin lets go of the other boy and sighs deeply. “We can’t afford to lose another actor guys, not this far into the game. Be extra careful and don’t make stupid decisions on your own. If you have an idea, come talk to me, or better yet Director Kim. We don’t have time to be talking chances with people’s safety okay?” 

 

Everyone nods. 

 

“And sorry. I didn’t mean to be so aggressive. That was just really stupid of you both.” Woojin apologizes  _ kinda  _ to the boys who moved the couch. “Let’s just take a break until Director Kim comes back.” 

 

The group of actors break off to various corners, all gossiping about what had just transpired before them. Jihoon hangs back and places his hand on Woojin’s shoulder. He winces. 

 

“Hey, are you okay?” Jihoon pouts, but retracts his hand. 

 

“I’m fine.” Woojin lies. He’s sure they both know that that’s not the truth, but he goes with it anyways. “I’m just glad you’re alright.” Woojin smiles softly at Jihoon again and pats his head ( _ force of habit,  _ his brain argues,  _ curse you Park Yerim!). _

 

Jihoon blushes at the action, but holds his ground, “You should at least ice your arm! I’ve never seen anyone tackle a sofa mid air before, especially to save me.” 

 

“I would hope so. I’d be beginning to think someone with a lot of couches was out to get you then.” Woojin jokes. 

 

“Oh, hush up!” Jihoon laughs, “Now, come on. You’re practically my hero, the least I can do is get you some ice.” He starts to drag Woojin out of the theatre by his good arm. 

 

“I’d prefer knight in shining armour, princess.” Woojin is incredibly glad that Jihoon is the one leading them out because he isn’t sure what kind of face he’s making right now.  _ Park Woojin, are you… flirting right now? Amazing! _

 

..

 

Woojin had always heard that bad things happen in three’s. It was a pretty well known superstition in the theatre, but he had never really thought much of it until today. 

 

“Everyone, gather round please.” Their stage manager, Jihyun looks around very upset like. “Director Kim… he—he won’t be here for the rest of the production.” 

 

“What?”

 

“You’re joking, right?” 

 

“Why not?”

 

Many of the actors are getting antsy, but Jihyun only sighs, “Unfortunately, there was an accident with his mother so he’s going back to his hometown to take care of her. He said she’s going to be alright, but she needs someone to be with her right now and Professor Kim was the only family member who could make it out to her. We’re looking for a replacement director, but none of the other professors seem to be able to take it on. We may… We may have to cancel the show.” 

 

“No!” Multiple people whine. 

 

“We’re so close though! There are only 3 weeks left until opening night, couldn’t we just figure it out somehow? We’re basically there!” Somin asks Jihyun desperately. 

 

“And who would direct it? I know all of you are hard workers, but we still need someone to direct.” Jihyun sighs again, “All of the managers have lots of work left to do so none of us would be able to and we can’t very well bring in a random student from the theatre department to direct.” 

 

“Well, what about Woojin?” Somin asks. She turns to Woojin, who up until then had been watching Jihoon’s crestfallen expression take over his face at the thought of not being able to do the show—the show that would finally allow him to prove himself to everyone. “Oppa, you’re basically done with the set and props right? You watched every rehearsal with Director Kim, I’m sure you picked up at least something from him, right? Can’t you do it?” 

 

Woojin rubs at the back of his neck. He’s definitely more of a backstage type of guy, he doesn’t really do the onstage aspect of theatre. He’s not even really sure if he’s capable of directing, especially such a big show. But then he looks around and sees everyone eyes trained on him, hopeful. Jihoon especially so. How can he turn down those eyes? 

 

“Guys, you know I really don’t have any experience directing. I could ruin the show!” Woojin tries to reason with everyone. It is true that he’s basically done his job now, save for a couple of backdrops that he needs to paint still, but he isn’t sure. He does think it’d be a shame if they had to cancel the show after they all worked so hard. 

 

“We’re almost done though! Director Kim pretty much went through everything with us and we can help you out as best we can and we just need someone to tell us if the picture looks nice and if what we’re doing makes sense! Woojin, I know you can do it.” Jihoon walks up to Woojin and places a hand on his shoulder (the one that isn’t slathered in pain relief cream and patches). He leans into Woojin’s face real close and who is Woojin to deny such a pretty, pretty face. 

 

“I—I guess…” Woojin stutters, embarrassed from the proximity and the eye contact, “I guess I could try and do it.” 

 

The room bursts into cheers and applause. 

 

“Thank god!”

 

“Thank you, Woojin!!” 

 

“You rock dude, a total lifesaver.” 

 

Jihoon smiles at Woojin and leans in even closer to whisper in his ear, “Guess you’re not just my knight in shining armour anymore, huh?” 

 

Woojin blabbers something unintelligent to Jihoon and whatever it is he says, it makes the other laugh. 

 

“Oh, and Woojin?” Jihyun walks up to the two boys amongst all the cheering and whoops from the other actors and stage hands. “Director Kim left his binder just in case we did have someone to fill in his position. I’ll get it from his office right now so we can start, okay?” 

 

Woojin nods and lets out a breath of relief. At least he’d have the director’s notebook full of all of his notes and key points. That definitely took off a lot of the pressure on him. But he was still feeling crazy nervous. 

 

“Hey,” Jihoon starts softly, grabbing Woojin by both his cheeks so he’ll look at him. Woojin registers that Jihoon is  _ way _ too close to him for comfort and he can’t help but steal glances down at the other’s lips.  _ Yup, definitely kissable, _ he concludes. “Woojin, you’re gonna do great, okay? It’ll be fine, you’ll be fine. Just breathe.” Jihoon pulls him back to reality with his words and it seems to do the trick because Woojin suddenly feels calm. 

 

“Thanks.” Woojin lets out the breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding.

 

“Anytime.” Jihoon responds, hands sliding from Woojin’s face to around his neck to hug him tightly. 

 

Woojin returns the hug with enthusiasm. Strong arms from years of building props wrapping around Jihoon and holding on tight. They break apart when Jihyun returns with the binder. 

 

“Hey, guys!” Woojin hollers to get the group’s attention, “I’ll be your director for the next three weeks and I’ll do my best to make sure this show runs smoothly! I hope you’ll take care of me and help me out lots since I’m kinda new to this aspect of theatre.” 

 

Everyone responds to his statement with a chorus of cheers and  _ don’t worry’s _ . 

 

“So for today, we’re gonna try and stumble our way through rehearsal and I’ll go home and read through Director Kim’s notes for the show so I have a grasp of what he wanted. I’ll be prepared for tomorrow so please come prepared as well. Now let’s have a great rehearsal!” Woojin feels a little breathless from his impromptu speech, but the thankful looks he receives from the cast (and Jihoon) make it worth it. “Get to your places and let’s have the set ready for scene one, I want to watch a run through for today.” 

 

The group starts moving quickly and Woojin feels like he could get down on his knees and cry from how hardworking they all are. Beside him, Jihoon reaches a hand out to grab his wrist and squeezes gently before walking away to get to his position. 

 

If this is what it was like to be a director, Woojin wanted to direct the next forty productions (or at least however many Jihoon was going to be in). 

 

..

 

_ Opening night _ . Woojin marvels at his cast, all dressed up in full costume, hair and makeup. It really is like they’re totally different people now. It makes him feel a little misty eyed, like his baby is all grown up because in a sense, this production is his baby. He’s had a hand in almost everything that’s went into this show and it’s only now that Woojin realizes how much he’s actually done to prepare for this show,  _ are you fucking insane, Park? _ It’s all worth it now when he sees his cast flittering around doing any final touches on their makeup and making sure every hair is in place. 

 

“Let’s get on stage to do Dinah before we let in the audience, alright guys?” Woojin tells the actors who are done and ready in the greenroom. “Can you let the others know too please?” 

 

With that, a couple of actors head back to the dressing room to call the rest of their cast out and Woojin goes over to the lighting booth to just check on a few last minute details. 

 

When the entire cast is assembled, Woojin makes his way down to the stage. He doesn’t really know how, but he ends up beside Jihoon for their pre show ritual. Blushing slightly, Woojin reaches out to grab Jihoon’s hand. If Jihoon was a constant one thousand out of ten in his regular clothes; full costume, hair, and makeup Jihoon was like twelve billion out of ten. Woojin can literally feel the air leave his lungs as he turns to look at Jihoon (who’s already looking at him). The other’s hair is slicked up and his eyes are lined roughly to make him look tougher. And his lips?  _ God, _ his lips. Woojin could bow down and build a shrine to those lips. They looked absolutely, positively delectable. 

 

Jihoon smiles at Woojin probably because he’s been staring too long and Woojin coughs before turning to address the group, “Is everyone here? Then let’s start!” 

 

The cast starts singing their pre show ritual, hand in hand swinging to the beat of the music. At the end, they come into a tight group hug and put their hands in the middle. 

 

“What’s the line?” Woojin asks everyone. 

 

They seem to look around for a second, but Somin lights up and quickly goes,  _ “Not today, asshole!” _

 

Woojin laughs, out of every single line in the entire play that was Somin’s clear favourite. “Okay,  _ “not today, asshole” _ on three!” One, two, three!” 

 

“NOT TODAY, ASSHOLE!” The cast cheers and then breaks out into a fit of giggles afterwards. 

 

“Break a leg, everyone!” Woojin shouts and many actors throw out their own wishes for others to break legs as well. 

 

..

 

Woojin has finally made his last round to make sure everything is perfect and is on his way to the staircase that’ll take him to the mezzanine to watch the show when he runs into Jihoon along the way. A very panicked Jihoon to be precise. 

 

“Hey,” Woojin walks up to him, “You doing okay?” He notices that the other still doesn’t have his mic on and motions for him to hand it over. 

 

“What if I fuck it all up, Woojin? What if I actually suck and nobody believes my acting?” Jihoon isn’t facing Woojin, but he can hear the anxiety in the other’s voice. 

 

“A little late to be worrying about that, isn’t it?” Woojin laughs. He’s surprised at how nonchalant he sounds despite having his hand down the back of Jihoon’s shirt. When he successfully feeds the mic down the other’s shirt and secures it to his waistband, Woojin turns Jihoon around.

 

“I know, but Woojin—” Jihoon starts, but Woojin cuts him off. 

 

“Listen to me, Jihoon.” Woojin looks hard at the other for a second before continuing to adjust the mic around his ears and near his mouth. “You are a great actor, okay? Fucking magical even. I would have had multiple breakdowns if it wasn’t for you and how much fun you had on stage. Your acting is the best when you’re just having fun and doing what you love and that’s what I love about you.” 

 

Woojin startles himself a little when he realizes he just indirectly said he loves Jihoon, but hey, no backing down now, right? He grabs the tape out of Jihoon’s hands to secure his mic. 

 

“But Woojin…” Jihoon doesn’t even have any words to refute Woojin, but his panic doesn’t leave him still. 

 

Woojin really doesn’t know how else to shock the other out of his stupor than what is probably his dumbest plan to date (and Woojin has had a  _ lot  _ of dumb plans, many of which involved the fire department or paramedics, or both). Without giving himself time to hesitate, Woojin grabs Jihoon by the face and kisses him. The tape in his hand is smushing Jihoon’s face a little too hard and the mic is basically enroute up Woojin’s nose, but it’s nice regardless. Woojin pulls back quickly and smiles, “Just have fun, Jihoon.” 

 

“Did you just—” Jihoon starts, looking a little dazed, but smiling nonetheless. 

 

“Yes. We can talk about that later though, you need to get back into character right now.” Woojin smiles and stokes Jihoon’s cheek softly. “I’m sure you can finish micing up yourself, I need to get going.” 

 

“Oh god.” Jihoon’s eyes widen. 

 

“What?” Woojin asks.

 

“The mic… Is it… Is it on?” Jihoon asks already mortified. 

 

“Oh shit!” Woojin spins the other around and lifts his shirt and jacket faster than either of them can get embarrassed by it, “Crisis diverted, we’re good. I should probably turn it on now though.” 

 

“Uhm, Woojin, before you do that would you mind maybe lowering my shirt?” Jihoon asks half embarrassed and half amused. 

 

“Fuck sorry, I wasn’t thinking!” Woojin apologizes quickly. 

 

“I’m sure you weren’t.” Jihoon laughs and turns around, quickly kissing Woojin on the lips. “I’m looking forward to that talk later, Mister Knight.” 

 

“Of course I am too, princess.” Woojin smiles and leans in to kiss Jihoon one more time, mumbling  _ “break a leg” _ against his lips before regretfully pulling away. 

 

.. 

 

The show goes smoothly. Better than smoothly, actually, it goes fan-fucking-tastic and Woojin could not be any more proud of his fellow students and Jihoon. They receive a standing ovation from their audience and Jihoon gets triple the amount of whoops and hollers from his peers. Maybe it was his lips first, the detail that drew Woojin in. That made him want to know more about the person Jihoon was without the characters, and the lines, and the costumes. Whatever the detail was, Woojin is so thankful for it because the wink that Jihoon sends him during his bow is enough to kill Woojin and bring him back to life again. 

 

When the cast call out to him to come onto the stage, Woojin isn’t really sure what’s happening. There was nothing really discussed about after the show, most just ended with the bows. Getting down to the stage, Woojin is shoved until he stands at center stage with Jihoon.  _ He really does look beautiful under these lights _ , Woojin thinks. 

 

“Hello!” Jihoon starts, speaking to the crowd, “Firstly, I want to thank all of you for coming to watch and supporting our show, it really means a lot!” Jihoon laughs a little bashful and the crowd screams out words of encouragement. “Anyway, during the course of putting this show together, we had a lot of things happen. Some bad,” Jihoon laughs when the cast all groan at the memories together, “And some good.” Jihoon spares a meaningful look at Woojin and it makes Woojin’s face burn. “We ended up needing to get a new director three weeks before the show and Woojin stepped up for us. He’s the reason that all of this was even possible so as a thank you we just wanted to present you with these flowers.” 

 

Somin runs out from the wing with a bouquet and hands it to Woojin. He takes it from her and looks to the ground, feeling tears well up in his eyes. 

 

“Thank you, Woojin for being there for all of us and working so hard. We really appreciate everything you’ve done for us.” Jihoon wraps an arm around Woojin’s waist to hug him from the side, “Alright, thank you everyone for coming! The actors will meet you in the lobby in a few! You’re free to go!” Jihoon laughs, burying his face into Woojin’s shoulder. 

 

Woojin looks down at Jihoon besides him, takes in how the lights fall upon him and how beautiful he looks in that moment, with the hustle and bustle of people moving around them. He somehow manages to keep Woojin’s focus, like the other people are just the backdrop to Jihoon’s very own play. See, to Woojin, Jihoon was like the main stage production. He was center stage, a spotlight beaming solely on him. He was spectacular and magnificent. The very thing that drew most of the people watching to their seats. Woojin, however, was still a backstage kind of guy. He was content with the work he did behind the scenes, so if Jihoon was the leading actor, then Woojin was content with being his prop. 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for making it to the bottom of this trashcan!


End file.
